


oaths and other truths

by spookykingdomstarlight



Category: Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: Banter, Established Relationship, Intimacy, Introspection, M/M, Pre-Movie: Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-01
Updated: 2018-11-01
Packaged: 2019-08-07 10:46:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16406987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spookykingdomstarlight/pseuds/spookykingdomstarlight
Summary: Nate’s answer is as honest and plain as it can get, but that’s how Nate’s always been. Honest and plain. Jake likes that about him. And he hates it. “You’re gonna do something stupid.” That smile brightens a bit. “Just make sure there’s no collateral damage this time, yeah?”





	oaths and other truths

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lleu](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lleu/gifts).



“I can feel it, you know,” Nate says, dragging his arm out from beneath Jake’s shoulder in order to push himself up. His hair is still gelled to hell and back even though Jake did his best to muss it and even though Jake wants to hate him for the pristine perfection of his, well, everything, he can’t. If there’s one thing in this entire damned outfit that he doesn’t regret doing, it’s Nate, though Jake’s got the funny feeling in the back of his mind that in real short order Nate’s going to regret everything to do with him.

It’s for the best. Probably. One day he’ll find a way to make it up to Nate. Maybe.

“Feel what?” Jake asks. It’s easy to pretend he doesn’t know exactly what Nate’s talking about. He plasters a smile onto his face and spackles over the cracks that’ll give him away as sure as anything. This whole outfit is a load of bullshit and Jake’s getting pretty damned tired of trying to make his father look at him like he’s worth the training that’s been put into him. He’s not sure yet what’s going to happen, but there’s an itch just under his skin where every stupid impulse he locks away on a daily basis lives. It’s the same itch that had him throwing himself at Nate once upon a time, when they were both younger and more—more than they are now. But unlike that one, this one is gonna hurt he’s pretty sure. And Nate’ll never understand.

Nate’s the kind of guy who’d have been a great son for the great Stacker Pentecost to raise. Nate probably wouldn’t even realize there’s anything remotely fucked about this whole situation.

An answering smile pulls, reluctant, at the corner of Nate’s mouth. It’s enough to settle the itch for the time being, ground Jake in what he has here and now. It’s good, this thing between them. The best thing outside of the drift a guy can get. And it’s only better with Nate, both there and here, though he’s glad they’re here now where Nate can’t read his every thought.

Seems like he doesn’t need the drift to know what Jake’s thinking.

Nate’s answer is as honest and plain as it can get, but that’s how Nate’s always been. Honest and plain. Jake likes that about him. And he hates it. “You’re gonna do something stupid.” That smile brightens a bit. “Just make sure there’s no collateral damage this time, yeah?”

Though Nate’s braced above him, a scant foot away, it’s not close enough, so Jake hooks his arm around Nate’s neck and pulls him down. Nate goes, laughing, because he’s a good guy, surprisingly easygoing under that stiff-as-steel exterior. “When have I ever put you in danger, huh? That’s slander, it is.” He brings their mouths together, catches Nate’s lips with his own, kisses the smile-turned-smirk off his face. “You’re as much a troublemaker as I am.”

But that’s not true. Nate just goes along with his bullshit more than he should and they both know it. Another thing Jake likes about him. It might be a thing that Nate hates about himself. Sometimes, Jake’ll catch flashes of Nate’s resentment, his annoyance, when they’re training, but it’s always tempered by the realization that he’d rather be there with Jake than with anyone else.

The reverse is true, too, and Jake is infinitely grateful to the nerds who came up with the Jaeger program and the drift that he’s never once had to articulate it. Because he’s not sure he can. What he feels? It’s too big sometimes, too scary, and there’s only so many admissions he can make before he’s worn out, unable to articulate any more. It’s not that he doesn’t want to, but he sure as hell knows his limits. He can barely speak to his dad some days.

This thing with Nate is bigger than that. Important in a different way.

“You only think I am,” Nate says, lips stupidly soft as they brush against Jake’s cheek on their way to nip at his earlobe. “So that you feel better about yourself.”

Nate’s stubble tickles at Jake’s jaw, prickles and scrapes, leaves behind a warmth that Jake wishes would linger. It never does, but that doesn’t stop him from wishing the marks stuck around a bit longer. It’s the one bit of Nate that doesn’t come across as military pristine. He could shave twice a day and he’ll still end up with a shadow cast across the lower half of his face. The stick up his ass was once so big that he did just that, much to Jake’s disappointment. But he’s relaxed at least this much since then and Jake has had the chance to rejoice about it ever since; he really does like the stubble.

Jake laughs and throws his weight against Nate, tumbles him to the bed so that he’s the one looking down at Nate now. Nate doesn’t seem to mind though. In fact, he seems to relax into the shitty pillows offered to them so graciously by the PPDC. “I do feel pretty good about myself.”

“That’s because of me.” And there’s mischief in his gaze, rare though it is. Nate’s in one of his funnier moods, poised on the edge of genuinely allowing himself to have a good time. Jake always likes this moment. It’s fragile. One word could tip him one way or the other, loosen him further or clam him up tight. It used to be that Jake didn’t know how to approach these moments. But over the years, he’s gotten pretty good at reading Nate, knows just how to make him have a little bit of fun instead of always being how he is.

“You know,” Jake says, bending close until they’re nose to nose. “It just might.”

If Jake is planning on doing something dumb, it’s as far from his mind as this kind of thing can possibly get right now, with Nate in his bed and bracketed between Jake’s arms and legs. Doing dumb things is for tomorrow or the day after or never, though probably not never because Jake’s always managing to do something. Right now, he can focus on what’s important.

Like making sure neither of them will be able to walk straight when they decide it’s time to get up again.


End file.
